You snooze you lose

In South Africa we have a popular saying which is “You snooze you lose” which simply means; if you procrastinate about doing something someone else will get it done and you will lose out on the benefit of being the first. It’s with little surprise that you will find many South Africans have an engrained entrepreneurial streak in them…we don’t like losing, so we try not to snooze.

Now why am I going on about this…I will tell you why!

A few weekends ago I was at a well know karting track with a group of friends and the place was full of men aged 16 to 30+ (Bang on the mark when it comes to smartphone ownership and usage) doing what boys do and having a whale of a time racing karts.

As I sat there what I did notice was that the chaps not racing had mobile phones in their hands. Using the phone’s camera and in general using their phones presumably texting, tweeting….. What an opportunity to engage directly with these individuals and to get them to advocate this experience with all their friend, fans and followers by giving them an appropriate channel to do exactly that…..the answers is in their hands or in their pockets 24/7. Trust me 99.9% of these chaps don’t go anywhere without their phones …and 99.9% of these chaps have a smartphone (fact).

This place is screaming out for an app – a mobile web app and a dedicated app.

The mobile web app is the reactive channel – it's there for when people are searching for you on their mobile phones and

the dedicated app is the proactive channel - reminding the phone owner that you exist, what you do, what’s happening, giving them the ability to check and compare their lap times, take photos and log their experience to keep, to send you feedback directly, to contact you directly and provide them with a tool that facilitates them to share this awesome experience through their social network all in one place at their fingertips. A channel that you can send a push notification to reminding your app user of an event or rewarding them with an exclusive offer.

So now what was the response of the MD of this company when I approached him ….."We are a long way from making a decision on apps as our existing software house and web developers are planning a mobile web version of our site anyway and we will need to see if that suffices"

Guess what …YOU SNOOZE YOU LOSE!!

If you want to get ahead of the game NOW not when it’s crowded place then contact me nelson@realtimeseating.com or send DM me @realtimeseating

13/02/2012 permalink | 0 Comments »

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Why many Restaurants fail

A couple of days ago I was reading a blog headed “Why Restaurants Fail” by a company in the States called Harrison Marketing, a company that has over 20 years’ experience in assisting Restaurants with their marketing. Having read the blog it became blatantly obvious that what they were talking about was just not relevant to Restaurants but all service based businesses.

The conclusion in simple: you should not spend most of your time focused on getting new customers/clients but spend most of it looking after your existing clients, engaging with them and getting them to advocate your business. Having existing customers advocating your business leads to new (good) business and customers whom in turn you turn into loyal, advocates and so the cycle continues.

Besides the traditional ways of achieving this and the use of social media the next step is to use todays’ technology to facilitate this loyal customer engagement and management and this comes in the form of a dedicated app.

What better way to keep your customers and clients up to date with your services and events, reward their loyalty and provide them with a tool to share and hence advocate your business to their friend, fans and followers than on their smartphones in one place with minimal effort? This is exactly what is accomplished by a dedicated smartphone app.

Yes I hear you say the cost of such an app is thousands of pounds but no its not because for as little as £50 per month you could have your own branded, customised dedicated app with your own online content management system to update the app in real time and all you need to do is ask.

To get started email me at nelson@realtimeseating.com or DM me on @realtimeseating.

Below is the blog that I read and would like to share with you (via www.harrisonmarketingmd.com @chefpaul9828)

“Let’s take out poor cash management, poor location, poor lease negotiations, etc. from the picture for a minute. We have worked with many restaurants helping with operations and marketing. I am always amazed how many restaurants think they can make it if they if they have good food and service. Marketing is just something that is an afterthought. I do not mean marketing in the traditional sense, but actually being a marketing-centric company as opposed to a sales-centric company. Not sure of the difference?

Marketing-centric companies understand that marketing involves every facet of their business. From the second a customer pulls into the parking lot. How they are greeted, staff training, pricing, sales, PR product development, packaging, and customer service.

We all know the old 80/20 rule. 80 % of sales usually comes from 20% of your customers. So why do some restaurants try so hard to get new customers. The reason is they have failed at satisfying their existing customers’ needs. It is so much easier to increase customer loyally (and cheaper) than having to promote your establishment for new clients. Problem is, this escapes so many business owners.

Think about if you could just increase volume from your existing clients from say, 15, to 50%. These clients are the one you want to target and keep happy. This is why having a well-trained staff that are happy to be there will serve you well.

Bottom line, train your staff, take care of every client as if they are your only client, keep them up to date on what’s happening at your establishment, create loyalty programs for them, and I guarantee, you won’t spend a ton of money trying to find new customers."

12/02/2012 permalink | 0 Comments »

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